Ulcers

Michele R. Marks is a slight woman who carries a heavy psychological burden.About 18 years ago when Michele was seven years old, a neighbor allegedly sexually abused her for an extended period. This supposed friend of the family did things to her in his basement and car, she says, that still haunt her.Michele's story is one of dozens of cases of sexual child abuse and assault that are tried every year in Carroll County. In Carroll, these cases receive a fair amount of attention because there are so few other violent crimes on which to focus.

Drug company executives are getting nervous about the potential collapse of a $5 billion market in ulcer medicine.Highly profitable drugs such as Zantac, Tagamet, Pepcid and Prilosec are threatened by new research suggesting many ulcers are caused by infection instead of stress.For decades doctors were trained to believe "no acid, no ulcer." The ulcer-prone personality was characterized as a high-pressure, type-A individual driven in his career. Typically he (or she) would carry Maalox, Mylanta or Tums wherever he went.

Sorting out all the claims on wetlandsYour readers of May 22 may be excused if they have difficulty in sorting out claims and counterclaims regarding the effectiveness of the state's nontidal wetlands law.In that edition we were favored with a letter to the editor by Dr. Torrey Brown, secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources; another letter from Curtis C. Bohlen, scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation; an editorial on the subject; and...

Two and a half years ago, Michelle had an ulcer. In fact, she'd had one about every 18 months for nearly 10 years, and she knew that increasing the dose of her anti-ulcer medication would take care of her problem.But in late 1990, her physician at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., decided to try a different approach. He still prescribed Zantac, the anti-ulcer drug, but he added two antibiotics and Pepto-Bismol to her therapy. Michelle was concerned about the inconvenience of taking so many pills -- up to 11 a day -- but her physician, Nicholas J. Talley, told her it would be worth it.It was. Michelle's ulcer never came back.

Charles "Bud" Groft, a retired Westminster auto mechanic who had been battling back from a double-lung transplant last August, died Saturday at Johns Hopkins Hospital from an infection he developed following ulcer surgery.Services will be at 1 p.m. tomorrow at St. John's Lutheran Church, 961 Leister's Church Road in Westminster.Mr. Groft, 51, was born in Westminster. He left high school to begin working as a mechanic at automotive shops. He worked for 17 years as yard manager of Condon's Auto Parts in Westminster and often spent his spare time tinkering with cars.

For the first time, scientists have found strong evidence that some types of cancer may be caused by bacteria.Stanford University researchers reported in today's edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that virtually all their patients with the most common type of stomach cancer are infected with a bacterium that has previously been linked to inflammation of the stomach and ulcers -- strong evidence that the infectious agent plays a role...

When a patient walks in with stomach pain or complains of recurring headaches, the doctor is likely to ask, "How's your job?" or, "How are things at home?"Dr. James Forsberg estimates that at least 10 percent of the patients who visit him or his colleagues at Carroll Primary Care have ailments resulting from or worsened by stress."You explore their life circumstances. You talk about when the symptoms come on, what makes them better," said Forsberg, a family practitioner at the Washington Road medical office.

William R. Sebra, a 48-year-old Aberdeen man, suffered from a peptic ulcer that would not respond to medicine and a diseased gall bladder that would make him violently ill if he ate his favorite dish -- fried chicken.University of Maryland Medical Center specialists took care of both of his problems last Thursday night in a two-in-one, four-hour long procedure that gives surgeons a live video picture of the patient's insides and permits them to ease the trauma, pain and cost of traditional surgery.